On 1st of May, the BB5 team started to install the exhibitioin TACTICS FOR THE HERE AND NOW, the heart of the fifth edition of BUCHAREST BIENNALE.
The first work to cover the exhibition walls, was untitled (The Lost Bishop), by the belgian artist Rinus Van de Velde.
Rinus Van de Velde (BE) drawing
BB5, curated by Anne Barlow, will open on May 25th and will take place in 7 venues around Bucharest, exhibiting the works of 19 artists from 19 countries from around the world.
For more details, please visit:
www.bucharestbiennale.org
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On March 15, 2012, PAVILION center hosted a lecture by Robert Marin, under the title Architecture Politics / Cultivating Ideas, in the frame of the exhibition Sheltered.
For centuries, the way the people lived it was the direct result of the way they worked.The house, as permanent living space, exclusively dedicated to rest and family activities, it is a relative new conversion and in terms of historical evolution, represents the remains of outsourcing lucrative work , education and sick care, to other institutions. The loss of many old functions in this social weaving, left room for new and different ways of conceptualizing housing, some rejected as utopian, some gradually accepted, some so recent, that only now are under test. To what degree there are solutions among so many proposals, is a personal decision, since individual housing concept is major influenced by individual choices. I suggest to take a look at some contemporary domestic architecture solutions, to identify the motivation and arguments of those involved in the process, and if it’s the case, to compare them with personal opinions on the topic.
Robert Marin (b. 1976) is a Bucharest based architect. He received his architecture diploma from UAIM Bucharest in 2001 and cofounded in the same year the architecture and design studio Square One. As principal architect of the office he received international recognition trough works widely publicized in professional books and magazines across the globe. Among the most important distinctions he can include the Bucharest Architecture Biennale first prize in Interior Architecture, the Henkel Art Prize and the Contractworld finalist. In 2008 he cofounded the architecture and design practice Nuca Studio in which he acts presently as principal architect.
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On 1st of March, 2012, PAVILION center for contemporary art and culture opened a new exhibition, created by Robert Marin & Nuca Studio, with the title “Sheltered”.
In a critique to modernity, the German sociologist Ulrich Beck introduced the term “The Age of And” to describe the generalized additive character of the people’s perception of themselves and the things belonging to them . Beck considers that the actions of the members of today’s society are almost exclusively pointed towards accumulation and this trend is specific to our age. This mutations in the way we perceive our social footprint led to spectacular transformations in the way we define comfort and since the architectural space is generated to respond to the needs of its occupants in certain comfort parameters we witnessed an incredible global inflammation of the constructed space in the past decade.
“Sheltered” is a small initiative that attempts to confront its visitors with the basics of human space needs in order to reactivate in each observer the primary tools of space analysis. The way we acknowledge our relationship with our immediate boundaries is definitive in our positioning in today’s world. The contemporary idea of shelter, house or personal space is the result of a continuous extension of their meaning by integrating alongside higher standards in ergonomics and risk management a huge amount of made up commercial criteria destined to dilate the apparent needs of the user. To be able to debate such matters we first need to take a look at our own satisfaction criteria regarding our basic needs for space.
The exposition is structured in two segments. The first one consists in two surfaces that trough their relationship creates narrow or wide spaces designed to engage the visitor in a direct experience of minimum space requirements. And a second one conceived as a “game” in which the visitor can intervene in different models that recreates “fit in” situations for some abstract characters.
Robert Marin (b. 1976) is a Bucharest based architect. He received his architecture diploma from UAIM Bucharest in 2001 and cofounded in the same year the architecture and design studio Square One. As principal architect of the office he received international recognition trough works widely publicized in professional books and magazines across the globe. Among the most important distinctions he can include the Bucharest Architecture Biennale first prize in Interior Architecture, the Henkel Art Prize and the Contractworld finalist. In 2008 he cofounded the architecture and design practice Nuca Studio in which he acts presently as principal architect.
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Razvan Ion, director of BUCHAREST BIENNALE and Anne Barlow, curator of BB5, were invited by BAM, Flemish Institute for Visual, Audiovisual and Media Art, in a research visit in Belgium.
Anne Barlow in the studio of Agency, with Kobe Matthys
Anne Barlow in the studio of Rinus van der Velde
Razvan Ion and Rinus van der Velde in the artist’s studio
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Thursday, February 16, 2012, Anne Barlow, the appointed curator of BUCHAREST BIENNALE 5, announced in a press conference the list of participating artists, the venues and new details about the concept of BUCHAREST BIENNALE 5 - Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art. At the conference, also participated Razvan Ion & Eugen Radescu, co-Directors of BUCHAREST BIENNALE, Ramona Macarie and Andrei Craciun, the Executive Directors and Catalina Miciu, Internal and Online Communication Associate at UniCredit Tiriac Bank.
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On Febryary 9 PAVILION - center for contemporary art and culture hosted a lecture by Marius Stan, with the title Memory and Politics of Memory: a Hang Tag.
Memory labels a wide variety of phenomena. You remember how to play GO after many years of idleness. You remember to call your parents when every of their anniversaries. You evoke the maidans where you used to play ball in your boyhood days. You retrace a flavour, a colour, a feeling… you bethink the 1989 events through the medium of certain time and praxis. Nonetheless lots of things happen – as Wittgenstein would assert – when we recollect.
When the reminiscence is acquired through some political means, it takes the shape of the so-called politics of memory. Or when the reminiscence coalesces into art becoming its object, we can ultimately state something about an art of memorialisation. All these employments are using interpretations and reinterpretations of some past symbols, whilst the memory on the whole is nothing else than a complex process wherein selection plays a decisive role. Being a trial experience par excellence, the memory could retrospect to the cast of the one who makes the selection. Notwithstanding, who is to say which elements are retainable as public memento and whichever should be blotted out or forgotten? That memory of a certain kind and shape could unintentionally arise within this “lab”, is another plausible fact. But things can be intended and unintended at a time, whilst certain “vernacular memories” of some major events could remain quite different from the official historical commemoration.
As oration of any common narrator used to facing the past, “Memory and Politics of Memory: a Hang Tag” tries to retell to the unforgetting ones how exactly the post-communist Romania has condescended to recollect its recent history in the aforementioned ways: politically and artistically! In other words, to provide answers to at least two fundamental questions: what and how exactly did we manage to politically recall in relation to the communist period? What and how exactly did we manage to artistically recall in relation to the communist period? Thus the political and artistic awakenings of the past as means to a post-communist establishment of some memorial typologies shall be explored.
Marius Stan holds a PhD in political sciences from the Faculty of Political Sciences – Bucharest University (with a thesis on the administration of the past in Serbia and the functioning of the ICTY), and currently works as a researcher within the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile wherefrom he has published several articles and other writings on the history of communism in Romania. He has published many studies about the penitentiary system, re-education by means of torture, and the communist repression in Romania; he also coordinates the international journal History of Communism in Europe. He co-authored two volumes of the The Dictionary of the Officers and Civil Employees belonging to the General Directorate of the Penitentiaries. Central Apparatus: 1948-1989, Iași: Polirom, 2009/ 2011.
Starting with 2006 he is a member and spokesman of the civic movement “Miliția Spirituală” (“Spiritual Militia”).
Among his fields of interest should be mentioned few educational and memorial projects (http://istoriacomunismului.ro/#/home; http://www.memoryofnation.eu/), the socio-political transformations in post-communist Europe and transitional studies – general (Romania/Serbia – in particular).
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On January 12 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture by Niels Van Tomme, with the title The Aporia of Curating, within the frame of the exhibition Melancholy is not enough….
Instead of installing concepts with certainty and curatorial authority, what would result in introducing doubt and hesitation as the ruling principles of exhibition making? What kind of knowledge can be acquired from such a skeptical curatorial position? Does it mean that the exhibition will necessarily collapse into itself, or are there other modes of exhibition making, and experiencing, attainable?
Niels Van Tomme is a New York based curator, researcher, and critic. Most recently, he curated the exhibition “Where Do We Migrate To?”, which premiered at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in Baltimore and will travel to Parsons The New School of Design in New York, the CAC in New Orleans, and the Rubin Center for Visual Arts in El Paso. He is a Contributing Editor of Art Papers and publishes internationally in journals, magazines, and exhibition catalogues. Van Tomme is currently co-editing the book Aesthetic Justice, forthcoming from Antennae Series by Valiz, Amsterdam, in 2012.
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On December 15, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT opened “Melancholy is not enough…”, a new exhibition curated by Niels Van Tomme.
Participants: Lotte Van den Audenaeren (BE), Anne-James Chaton (FR), Andrea Galvani (IT), Jo Mitchell (UK), Matthias Wermke & Mischa Leinkauf (DE).
“A sorrowful pleasure”, according to Bulgarian-French theorist Julia Kristeva, melancholy is assumed to exclude any action. Besieged by one’s grievous state, one can’t react with or against this all-pervasive affective condition. Turning away from deliberately finding pleasure in overpowering sentiments and environments, as the melancholic subject is expected to in most conceptualizations of her state, the artists in this exhibition subvert the looming of melancholia into delight, relentlessly relating the physical places they navigate to the mental states they desire to appropriate.
From left to right: Eugen Radescu, Andrei Craciun, Razvan Ion, Anca Nuta
A special guest, Anne Barlow, the curator of BB5
Anne Barlow and Razvan Ion
“The exhibition, introduces an ambiguous site of insubordinate gestures, offering potential models to establish a position that merges tactical distrust with poetic action. Propagating ideas of imbalance and disobedience, it is a celebration of practical invention and moral resistance—the conquest of time over subjugation, and of defiance over sorrow—and the vast realization that melancholy is, indeed, not enough.”
Extract from the exhibition publication
Text by Niels Van Tomme
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On 27th of October, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT presented in the frame of the exhibition presently i have nothing to show and i’m showing it! an artist talk with Marina Naprushkina in dialogue with Eugen Radescu.
A discussion about a not so close reality, about a closed society and about how we can manage to discuss arguments about a real democracy when we have to deal with failure of democratic lessons.
“The Office for Anti-Propaganda” was founded in 2007 in Frankfurt. The “Office” produces an archive of videos, texts and picture material on the subject of political propaganda. The focus is on Belarus because but its political model can be transferred to some other East European and Latin American countries from which Belarus gets political support. Belarus is also an outstanding example of how to establish a modern dictatorship and how the western democracies handle this “problem”. “The Office for Anti-Propaganda” is the result of long-standing work in gathering and archiving the original propaganda material and the works of the artists. It is shown in the form of an installation with an archive, which every viewer can use: select and watch the videos, read correspondence between the office and German authorities, or page through the original Belorussian “patriotic” ideological literature.
Marina Naprushkina, born 1981 in Minsk, Belarus. Her works is a range of media including painting, video and installation to develop critical examinations of power and the structure of the State, often using material acquired from contemporary Belarus. A rich source is the propagandistic material delivered by governmental institutions. There so obtained images and symbols become either slightly changed or inserted in a different context in order to reverse the original message. The artist’s painstaking dissection of the visual and linguistic structure of the authoritarian regime and research-based works demonstrate how state authority affects society, and transforms democracy into an illusion for those living under the persistent hegemony of the ruling network.
Eugen Radescu (b. 1978) is politologist (specialized in moral relativism and political ethics), cultural manager, curator and theoretician. He writes for various magazines and newspapers. He curated, among others, Bucharest Biennale 1 with the theme “Identity Factories” and “How Innocent Is That?” at Pavilion Bucharest. He published a book “How Innocent Is That?” at REVOLVER BOOKS, Berlin, Germany. He is co-editor of PAVILION – journal for politics and culture and co-director of Bucharest Biennale (with Razvan Ion) and the chairman of the organizational board of Pavilion and Bucharest Biennale. He is associate professor at Bucharest University and Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj. Lives and works in Bucharest.
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On October 5, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted the first event from PAVILION MUSIC series, a dialogue between NEUROTIC MASS MOVEMENT and Andrei Craciun, under the title Tragic Machine.
A talk focused on the political issues and critical thinking of the musical scene. Analyzing the representational strategies, the dialogue exlppored topics, such as the nature and state of independent music, racism and sexism in the music business and the marketing of non-white and politically motivated artists.
The London based band, NEUROTIC MASS MOVEMENT comprises of the songwriting partnership of Yin Neurotic and David Neurotic. Together they have developed an emotional and intuitive approach to music which has to be seen, heard and witnessed. Singer Yin Neurotic iconoclastic live performances and David Neurotics uncompromising musicianship underpins and cajoles the NMM sound. Asked recently in an interview what his guitar influences were, he said: “there are many influences, but Tristan Tzara, Le Tonneau de la Haine and Scooby Doo, spring to mind”…
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On Spetember 29, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a discussion between Razvan Ion and Adreea Grecu about the current status quo of the Romanian cultural scene.
Andreea Grecu and Razvan Ion are professors at University of Bucharest. Andreea Grecu is a cultural manager and former director of Ntional Cultural Fund. Razvan Ion is co-editor of Pavilion – journal for politics and culture.
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On September 22 PAVILION UNICREDIT reopened after the summer vacation with a new exhibition curated by Eugen Radescu under the title presently I have nothing to show and I’m showing it!.
Participants: Rainer Werner Fassbinder (DE), Isidore Isou (FR), Marina Albu (RO), Marina Naprushkina (BY/DE), Alfred Jarry (FR), Juan delGado (ES/UK).
Marina Albu, one of the participant artists, presented at the opening of the show her newest performance, My Ego on a Stick.
“PRESENTLY I HAVE NOTHING TO SHOW AND I’M SHOWING IT!” is a commercial slogan made by Ghislain Mollet-Vieville, meant to draw attention upon the necessity of promoting art through all means so that it becomes as known as possible to the public.
The morphic field
“We refuse to discuss. Human relationships must have passion, if not terror, as foundation.” (Isidore Isou). The “egregore” as a steady element of the morphic field needs an interactive game between the different specifications of concepts used in the branches of social, art, politics, economics, social, culture, the progress game, the postmodern non-action and the branches of new technologies – all imply a theoretically amplified construct. Mediation, as Jean-Jacques Gleizal says, cannot be seen as a goal per se. It systematizes the relation between art and society through raising questions concerning art’s capacity to regulate or, why not, to disturb the society. Through methodological tricks, mediation interiorizes politics, but the reversed relation is also true: politics interiorizes art. Contemporary art has an essential trait: it is situated at the antipode of estheticism, which leads to a different approach , moreover, contemporary art discusses/disputes/questions democracy. The essential question raised for debate by the exhibition “presently I have nothing to show and i’m showing it!” is that that if nowadays we assist at a reconstruction of basic concepts of contemporary art, if art still is a hidden motive of cultural and moral progress of a society, if art still is an easily valuable branch whenever we speak about all forms of progress. (Eugen Radescu)
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Between June 15 -19, 2011, PAVILION - journal for politics and culture took part at BOOK COOP ART BASEL.
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On June 10, PAVILION UNICREDIT took part of Bucharest’s White Night of the Galleries, with a special treat for our visitors, a hopscotch contest with special prizes with PAVILION goodies and a live act of MINUS and Montgomery Clunk.
DJ Set with Minus & Montgomery Clunk
www.soundcloud.com/minus
www.soundcloud.com/montgomery-clunk
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On June 16 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture by Jose Antonio Fernandes Dias, with the title Curating the Global, within the frame of Free Academy.
Starting from a long look and deep description of a work by Yinka Shonibare, “The Scramble for Africa”, 2000-2003, we will re-visit some of the main questions introduced in art practice and curating by globalization. Focusing on “modernist primitivisms” retro-prospectively, as a particular and relevant moment for our present condition of globality.
Jose Antonio Fernandes Dias, anthropologist and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon, where he coordinates the MA in Curatorial Studies. He is author of essays published in several countries, in books, magazines and catalogues, on Anthropology and Art, Museology, Curating, Post-Colonial Studies. As a curator, he’s part of the team coordinating the project artafrica, and is a consultant in the Department of Fine Arts from the Gulbenkian Foundation. He is curator of several exhibitions in Portugal and abroad. Currently is the head of the project Africa.cont. Lives and works in Lisbon.
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On Thursday, June 16, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture by Alex Brahim, under the title Histeria - Historia.
A talk discussing artists, writers, filmmakers who have dared to tell the truth in especially turbulent times. Now more than ever as we are lied to, manipulated by propaganda, distracted by the over abundance of the latest techno-gadgets, inundated by pointless pop culture and forced into feelings of impotency as we become overwhelmed by the state of global collapse. Works and artists who seek to inspire individuals to come forward in artistic protest, lending a personal voice to history which illustrates the fear, rage and sorrow of the human condition in these trying times.
Alex Brahim is an independent theoretician and curator from Columbia. Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.
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On June 07, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted an artist talk about the recent changes and turns in the art practice and their projections into or outside the socio-political sphere. Moderated by Razvan Ion, within the frame of the exhibition FROM CONTEMPLATING TO CONSTRUCTING SITUATIONS.
Jason Loebs is an artist in residence at PAVILION UNICREDIT within the residency exchange program with ART IN GENERAL, New York. He uses various media: painting, collage, installation, mixed media, exploring the ways through which the present is constructed by reconfiguring the past. His works have been recently shown in Voxpopuli, Philadelphia, Evanston Art Center and New Jersey Museum for Contemporary Art. He is currently part of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
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On June 02, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT opened FROM CONTEMPLATING TO CONSTRUCTING SITUATIONS, a new exhibition curated by Razvan Ion.
Participants: Francis Alys (BE/MX), Minerva Cuevas (MX), Ciprian Homorodean (BE/RO), Jason Loebs (US), Wilfredo Prieto (CU), Sabine Rethore (FR), Temporary Services (US), Abdellah Taia (MA/FR), Erwin Wurm (A)
Kant was the one who launched the interrogation on our knowledge’s conditions of possibility and the one who explicitly understood this interrogation as being a critical act. From now on, we can say that the modern reflection is either critical - in this auto-reflective sense- or it is not modern. (Boris Buden) But, the freudian, foucaultian, postmodern, stalinist, leninist repression etc. is identical, and what can make a difference is the astonishment of the self and the possibility to say “no” to the oppressive state (without transforming this into an anarchist wailing ). Too much blood has been spilled to let the art and the revolutionary machine be set apart. The move from the contemplation of a situation to its representation, must be made immediately.
The reader and it’s physical projection, the exhibition, deals with different generations of artists and thinkers which refuse to participate in the tired prescriptions of marketplace and authority and instead create radical new methods of engagement. The concept try to develops an indispensable, contemporary conception of political change, a conception that transcends the outmoded formulations of insurrection and resistance. I believe too much blood and ink has been shed for the art machines and the revolutionary machines to remain separate. (Razvan Ion)
(from left to right) Anca Nuta, Eugen Radescu,
Razvan Ion, Jason Loebs, Andrei Craciun
Razvan Ion, Director of PAVILION UNICREDIT and curator of the show.
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On 31st of May, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted the press conference in which, Anne Barlow, the appointed curator of BUCHAREST BIENNALE 5, presented the concept of the biennale, under the title TACTICS FOR HERE AND NOW.
Anne Barlow (born in Glasgow, Scotland), the appointed Curator of BB5, is Executive Director of Art in General, New York.
After receiving an M. A. in the History of Art at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, Barlow acted as Curator of the Scottish Arts Council Collection of contemporary art (1989-1994) and Curator of Contemporary Art and Design at Glasgow Museums (1994-1999), where she managed a temporary exhibitions program, contemporary art and design collection, artists’ residencies, and new commissions. From 1999-2006, she was Curator of Education and Media Programs at the New Museum, New York, where she oversaw the scope of the museum’s educational and public programs; initiated and developed Museum as Hub, a global network initiative that connected the museum with international contemporary art partners in Cairo, Eindhoven, Mexico City and Seoul; organized inter-disciplinary roundtables with leaders in the fields of the visual arts, architecture, and design; and curated numerous exhibitions and performances.
Independently, she also collaborated on the exhibition Copy It, Steal It, Share it at Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul (2003), and guest-curated film and media projects for Threshold Artspace, Perth, Scotland (2007). Barlow has published for organizations including Liverpool University Press/Tate Gallery Liverpool; the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, United Kingdom; the Edith Russ House for Media Art, Oldenburg; the New Museum, New York; and Art in General. She was also a lecturer/ guest critic for organizations including the Royal College of Art, London; Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; MUMOK, Vienna; New York University; The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York; and Tate Modern, London.
TACTICS FOR THE HERE AND NOW
Within the current context of the shifting nature of economics, society and culture—situations that often referred to as “precarious times”— artists often have to negotiate risky positions, contested territories, or situations in which cultural activity interacts with, or provides a counterpoint to, conditions of flux. Within this context, Bucharest Biennale 5 profiles the work of artists whose agency lies not necessarily in overt statements, but rather in investigative, indirect, or informal strategies that possess their own kind of power.
By nature, work that is investigative is slow in the making, expressing a kind of resistance to both the speed and changing nature of things and the increasing sense of instability that pervades everyday life. The act of researching, uncovering, and presenting things that are just below the surface—an activity that has been aided by the Internet as a space in which artists can more actively seek out information that is “missing or hidden” —defines the way in which many artists work today. On one hand, this can an element of rumor, secrets being revealed through seduction or manipulation, or ideas that are communicated or altered in some way through transmission. On the other, it can be seen as a reworking of specific histories, from the civic to the personal, that produce a different kind of “knowledge” that is not necessarily about nostalgia or narrative , but more about presenting a complex and contemporary perspective on life. Artists’ projects for specific spaces and contexts in Bucharest will draw on a variety of sources and sites, as a way of refreshing dialogue around older topics, re-imagining specific narratives, or proposing new ones.
Often, artists also circumvent existing systems as a way of responding to social and political contexts that are less predictable. Their way of working reflects a practice that is more “evolving, dynamic and responsive, difficult to pin down, essential for situations that change quickly or are not yet fully understood.” For some artists, working with informal structures means working together, for others, it means developing approaches that are distinctly personal and individual. The deployment of informal strategies is something that is resonant in a city such as Bucharest, among others, where more formal systems do not necessarily seem to support the most experimental art practice.
In terms of its format, the Biennale will be developed around a number of core commissioned projects that will take place in identified sites such Pavilion and other educational contexts, and ideally public venues and spaces in the city, such as public squares, billboards, media screens, and storefronts. While the visual arts form the core of the Biennale, other disciplines such as literature and film will be woven into the overall program, providing a format that involves an ‘exhibition’ at the opening but that also develops dynamically over the duration of the biennale.
The education program will manifest itself in the biennale through the creation of “spaces for thinking” in the way in which both the exhibition and public programs are put together. The Biennale program will arouse public curiosity and greater engagement through various means: components that evolve over time or that draw on the idea of repetition; modes of engagement that are both formal and informal in structure; connectivity to other disciplines; longer-term involvement by artists through specific relationships with partner institutions/sites; and elements of surprise and playfulness in addition to more theory-based events; and public events and projects.
The notion of the informal builds on existing strategies evident in Bucharest, and it is a clear component of Pavilion’s Free Academy: “What makes the difference between the formal system proposed by the official state power network through the ministry and informal education, proposed by the Free Academy project, is the creation of what appears in the educational discourse as an “active citizen”- that type of citizen that participates in the social debate, that is an agent of change, that proposes the terms of development, that has the attitude resources and competences to get involved.” (Eugen Radescu)
For more informations, visit www.bucharestbiennale.com.
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FREE ACADEMY continued in the spring of 2011 with a new program and new classes.
Razvan Ion: THE CURATOR AS A POLITICAL ACTIVIST
Calin Cotoi: POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Adriana Mereuta: ABOUT ARCHITECTURE
Alin Ciupala: THE BODY AND SEXUALITY IN THE XIXTH CENTURY
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On May 12, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT proudly hosted a lecture by one of our former interns, Ana Dabija, with the title Exposure therapy: the dispersed museum.
Ana Dabija was born in 1985 and has graduated the Univerisity of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu” in Bucharest.
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PAVILION is pleased to welcome Jason Loebs, New York based artist, for his research visit in Bucharest. He arrived Sunday, on April 10 and is going to stay in Romania until April 25, preparing for his residency in Bucharest, which will take place in June-July 2011.
Starting with 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT is honored to be a part of the program Eastern European Residency Exchange (EERE) of Art-in-General, New York. EERE offers artists the opportunity to create new works in new contexts and to interact with artistic communities in New York, Bucharest and Zagreb.
During this first residency exchange, Ioana Nemes will live in new York between March-April 2011 as a guest artist at Art in General. The result of her activity in the frame of the residency is represented by the solo show “Times Colliding”, curated by Courtenay Finn and hosted by Art in General between March 25th - May 7th, 2011.
During the same program, American artist Jason Loebs was selected by PAVILION for a residency in Bucharest between June - July 2011. Loebs will complete a work specially commissioned for the exhibition “From Representing to Constructing Situations” between June 2nd - July 31st 2011, curated by Razvan Ion at PAVILION UNICREDIT - center for contemporary art&culture. Loebs will also publish a series of works in PAVILION - journal for politics and culture and will hold an artist talk at PAVILION UNICREDIT.
Ioana Nemes (b. 1979 Bucharest, Romania) is one the most appreciated Romanian artists of her generation. Her works have been exhibited at SecessionVienna (2010), Istanbul Biennial (2009), Smart Project Space Amsterdam (2009), U-Turn Copenhagen (2008), Prague Biennial (2007), Bucharest Biennial (2006), and Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2006). She was artist-in-residence at IASPIS Stockholm (2010) and Kulturkontakt Vienna (2004) and received Future of Europe Art Prize from Galerie Für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig (2007).
Jason Loebs is an artist based in New York. Loebs received his Certificate in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts in 2004 and his MFA from the The Art Institute of Chicago in 2007 he is now participant in the Whitney Independent Study Program. He has participated in group exhibitions at Artist Space, Exhibition 211, Bortolami gallery, Voxpopuli (Philadelphia), Harris Leberman Gallery and Kavi Gupta Gallery (Chicago & Berlin).
Eastern European Residency Exchange is supported by Trust for Mutual Understanding and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
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On March 30, under the umbrella of her alter-ego Femme Façade, Valerie Renay held an Q&A moderated by Razvan Ion and hosted by PAVILION UNICREDIT. On 31st of March she performed her new show MY BLOOD IS THICKED THAN YOURS in Control Club, Bucharest.
Valeray Renay (left) and Razvan Ion (right)
Performer, film director, writer and half of art rock duo Noblesse Oblige, the mixed race French-Caribbean artist Valerie Renay spent half her life in London where she trained in acting (with Phillippe Gaulier) movement (with Contact impro/Body Weather) and voice.
In London, Valerie also hosted cabaret nights (Whoopee) and events such as Gay Shame (Duckie). She stars in Edwin Brienen’s arthouse movie L’amour Toujours (2008).
Valerie is also regularly DJ’ing on the European club circuit. As a French pop expert she plays an eclectic mix of tasty electro rock indie classics with a pinch of weirdness and underground touch.
Now based in Berlin she has re-emerge as her alter ego Femme Façade making regular appearances at underground clubs, fashion shows, art galleries, as well as international performance festivals such as Contradança Asta Festival, Portugal and The New Burlesque Festival, Denmark (featured on Danish national TV).
Femme Façade’s new performance My Blood is Thicker than Yours intertwines the result of her research into voodoo practices and her own specific sense of aesthetic and stylised world. Valerie Renay explores the notion of belief, female power, ethnicity, life, and death through the re-enactment of a ritualistic sacrifice.
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On March 10, 2011, PAVILION UNICREDIT opened Just Do It. Biopolitical Branding, an exhibition curated by Simina Neagu.
Participants: Freee (UK), Center for Tactical Magic (US), Foundland (NL), Metahaven (NL), Bureau for Melodramatic Research (RO)
The city presents itself as a semiotic jungle, laden with logos that guide your path through the use of “soft power”. No longer compelled to act according to set values, the citizen-cum-consumer is persuaded to assert its own identity by consumption. But how can logos or symbols exert such influence and most importantly, are we to accept this influence as wholly positive? In order to answer these questions and analyze the mechanisms through which corporate organizations and the prevalent phenomenon of branding shape the social imaginary, artists and researchers choose different strategies of appropriation or resistance. From Metahaven’s analysis of visual identity to Freee’s critique of advertising, this exhibition tries to act as a toolkit for operating in a neo-liberal environment. Far from being a visual manifestation of anti-corporate activism, the presented works fluctuate between protest and over-identification, engaging the viewer in a variety of discourses.
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The work of the Georgian artist, Lado Darakhvelidze, Rubik’s Cube. New State Symbols, was donated through the artist’s initiative and PAVILION’s support to the House for Abandoned Children “Sf. Nicolae” from Bucharest.
The donated work was produced within the frame of the exhibition Utopia of Exotic.
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On February 10, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted Frontiers as a Game for Social Change, an artist talk held by Karl Zechenter, one of the members of the group gold extra (A). The event took place in the frame of the exhibition Utopia of Exotic.
“The revolution will not be televised - instead it’ll come with a game pad” - The computer-game Frontiers by the Austrian artist group gold extra lets its players experience European border zones performing the roles of refugees or border guards respectively. The game allows for a new perspective in an artistic and gaming context: Frontiers modifies the shooter-genre and lets its players face the question just how much reality they can afford within a computer-game. Purposefully put between the functionality of games and the approach of fine arts, Frontiers is presented e.g. in the permanent exhibition at ZKM Karlsruhe. One of the producers of the game, Karl Zechenter, speaks in his lecture about researching and developping the game, the context of political games and the techniques of modding as seen in Frontiers.
Karl Zechenter (*1972) lives in Salzburg (A), studied literature and political sciences and works as a movie director and curator.
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On December 9, 2010, PAVILION UNICREDIT opened Utopia of Exotic, an exhibition curated by Andrei Craciun.
Participants: Kristoffer Ardena (ES/PH), Tania Bruguera (CU), Lado Darakhvelidze (GE / NL), gold extra (A), Hong-An Truong (US), Yoshinori Niwa (JP), Saviana Stanescu (RO/US)
from left to right: Yoshinori Niwa,
Razvan Ion, Andrei Craciun, Eugen Radescu
The exotic subject, whatever it may be, is first assigned two essential qualities, namely the great distance between the analytical entity and the formal unusual/weird characteristics. But the farther an object is from the analyst, the less worthy it becomes of being examined. The proposition of knowledge is substituted by the proposition of indifference and superficiality of being known. When we talk of nation-states-societies we can easily say that pursuing naively an utopian system of values, one could imagine that exoticism implies a certain type of reciprocity between subject and analyst. Somewhere along the way a vague connection is established between the one being determined and the one that determines. Nonetheless Western society has assumed the role of absolute analyst. Thus, the type of relation towards the apparently exotic space modifies its assessment parameters…
Therefore throughout history, exotic space was a locus of social, economic and political experiments, generated by utopian ideas and ideologies. The hypothesis of potential for non-Western space to transform into a social paradise was demolished by twentieth-century history through violent and traumatizing arguments. Utopia, whether a concept, an idea, a semblance or a reality can be regarded as such: the exotic can be treated as an utopian subject precisely due to the lack of reciprocity between analyst and subject. In this sense Utopia of Exotic, an inquiry into what the two terms mean nowadays, explores economic, social and political aspects of what Western society considers exotic land or culture, trying to underline the utopian character of the term exotic. (Excerpt from the text “Utopia of Exotic” by Andrei Craciun, from the publication with the same title).
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PAVILION UNICREDIT was invited to the international congress of European art institutions in Barcelona. Image from the panel discussion.
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On November 16 2010 PAVILION UNICREDIT reopened after the summer break with Rien ne va Plus, an exhibition produced by Powerhouse Company, a dutch architecture office.
The impact of the financial crash on architecture was unforeseen and unprecedented. The question, “what’s wrong with our financial system?”, could be followed by the question, “what’s wrong with our architecture?”
This last boom was caused by the financial structures of real estate loans and speculation. Architecture became a means of wealth rather than well-being, a speculation feeder and a marketeer. From the socially committed origins of modernism, to postmodernism, to fashion and icon architecture – what is left of the moral authority that the Modern Movement had given to architecture? And if architecture is no longer socially committed, how can it provide for much-needed sustainable solutions? How can we create architecture that is based on long-term qualities rather than on short-term profits?
Rien ne va Plus started as a research project based on the assumption that we are today witnessing three crises. First, an economic crisis caused by excessive speculation on housing, secondly, an environmental crisis giving rise to unprecedented climate changes and thirdly, a generational crisis caused by the retirement of the biggest generation ever.
The exhibition is not a conclusion on how to make a better practice, neither does it offer immediate solutions; it aims to open a conversation, firstly, about the necessary shift in our overall mindset and then about possible answers to these crises.
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September 21, 2010 - Anne Barlow, the appointed curator of BB5, held a press conference in New York
Anne Barlow, the Curator of BUCHAREST BIENNALE 5, held a press conference on the 21st of September 2010, at Art in General (79 Walker Street), New York, USA, at 6.00 PM. At the press conference participated the co-directors of BB, Razvan Ion & Eugen Radescu, and the assistant curator Simina Neagu.
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The Reality of Contemporary Art Biennials at Romanian Cultural Institute StockholmIn connection with the exhibition The Realism Question – Epilogue to Bucharest Biennale 4 on 6 September at 6.30 pm
Participants: Răzvan Ion (far right), Johan Pousette (middle left) and Eugen Rădescu (middle right).
Moderator: Charlotte Bydler (on left)
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BUCHAREST BIENNALE 4. Handlung. On Producing Possibilities.
curated by Felix Vogel
May 21 - July 25
Venues: PAVILION UNICREDIT, Institute for Political Research, Paradis Garaj, Center for Visual Introspection, Geology Museum
Is there a difference between actions and stories? The German term Handlung serves not so much as a translation for both words, but much sooner it refers to the very semantic level. It is impossible to differentiate ‘actions’ from ’stories’, both meanings are intrinsically linked to each other and generate each other. It is exactly this ambiguity of Handlung that should be stressed here and be made productive. The 4th Bucharest Biennale suggests an experimental set-up to scrutinize different modes of action, possible courses and capabilities of action. It will try to examine various stories, interweaved plots, and fictions and how all this is bound to or detached from concepts of agency. How is agency proposed and what instructions for taking action are necessary or have to be developed? We will examine practices that criticize, rewrite, correct or queer established narratives as well as yet other forms that play with the set of conditions of constructing narrations and history. It will be about the appearing of things in the blinding bright light that shines out of the public realm. With this project, we will investigate how, who, and where these possibilities of action are produced, how one can intervene in common patterns and how other and new possibilities of Handlung can be generated. In a critical manner, the set-up of this project will be based on the urban and spatial organization of Bucharest with its different historical and political layers and thus trying to examine how urban structures and architecture act as agents to allow, interdict and produce Handlungen.
from left to right installation of: Claudia Cristovao, Andrea Geyer, Asa Sonjasdotter
from left to right installation of: Claudia Cristovao, Asa Sonjasdotter
from left to right installation of: Andrea Geyer, Emily Roysdon
from left to right installation of: Cabello/Carceller, Ion Grigorescu
from left to right installation of: Lan Tuazon, Charlotte Ginsborg
installation of Kalle Brolin
from left to right installation of: Nicoline van Harskam, Fereshteh Toosi, Ștefan Constantinescu, Alexander Kluge
installation of Lina Selander
from left to right installation of: Maryam Jafri, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Martin Beck
from left to right installation of: Christine Meisner, Sabrina Gschwandtner
from left to right installation of: Goldin+Senneby, Asier Mendizabal
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On 20th of May BUCHAREST BEINNALE 4 opened for the preview.
The day started with a press conference held by Razvan Ion and Eugen Radescu, co-directors of BB, Felix Vogel, curator of BB4, Renaud Thiers representing Pilsner Urquell and Anca Nuta representing UniCredit. The press conference was attended by more then 300 Romanian and international journalists and professionals.
Razvan Ion, Felix Vogel and Eugen Radescu
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After three weeks of almost nonstop working, struggling with old electrical installations, dirty-old-falling-apart walls, huge queues in bricolage shops, traffic jams, heat, rain and demonstrations in front of the Government Palace, the team of BB4 finally managed to install the exhibition!!!
Few days before the opening, curator Felix Vogel organized a special guided tour of the exhibition for the volunteers of BB4.
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On May 21, in the lecture hall of the National University of Arts, Felix Vogel moderated a talk aiming to explore the production of the concept and the responses of the artists.
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From 20th of May to 30th of May, 13 students from the installation department and work.master, contemporary art practices, Haute ecole d’art et de design, HEAD Geneve, Switzerland, will join Bucharest and work on site specific interventions around the housing area of Rahova-Uranus. The idea is to produce singular views on what the term of „Handlung“, as Felix Vogel makes it accessible for his concept on the public sphere in Bucharest, can mean in terms of an ephemeral art production. Trop tot, trop tard | Too early, too late. Activating the present, now. is also asking about the conflict of being elsewhere than in the right place at the right time, of missed opportunities, and a possible change.
Participants: Sonia Kacem, Stephan Freivogel, Hadrien Rossier, Olga Kokcharova, Roxana Sima, Violetta Perra, Stéphanie Giorgis, Emeline Vitte, Ceel Mogami de Haas, Laurent Peter, Vincent de Roguin, Natalia Comandari, Florent Meng
The 13 different approaches – between installation, performance, writing, sound- and video art, as well as a conference – were presented to the public on May, 29th with a conference and a guided tour.
A project by:
Katharina Hohmann, professor at the Installation, Sculpture and Space department, accompanied by Laurent Schmid, professor at the work.master programme, both HEAD Genève in collaboration with Felix Vogel.
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On 25th and 26th of June, in cooperation with the Swiss Institute for Art Research in Zurich (SIK-ISEA), Bucharest Biennale hosted an international conference on the “Biennale Principle”. The agenda addressed the genealogical aspects of Art Biennales by discussing the history of the Venice Biennale, as well as the present and future conditions of Art Biennales such as the Bucharest Biennale. The conference was based on the assumption that Art Biennales are foremostly Janus-faced. On one hand, they are part of the globalized art market and perpetuate its structures, rites and conventions - the homogenizing effect of Biennales. On the other hand, they often highlight local, regional or national idiosyncrasies - the heterogenizing effect of Biennales.
Speakers: Jorg Scheller, Felix Vogel, Beat Wyss, Zdenka Badovinac, Jan May, Ursula Zeller, Annika Hossain, Susann Oehler, Razvan Ion, Marcus Graf, Li Zhenhua, Natasha Becker.
Annika Hossain
Beat Wiss
Jan May
Jorg Scheller
Li Zhenhua
Marcus Graf
Natasha Becker
Susann Oehler
Ursulla Zeller
Zdenak Badovinac
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On 25th of March, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted the 19th lecture from ZEPPELIN series produced by Arhitectura magazine: SITUATIONIST URBANISM, a presentation by Wilfried Hackenbroich.
Wilfried Hackenbroich worked in some famous architecture offices, such as OMA (Rotterdam) or Morphosis (Los Angeles). His activity during the last years has an deliberately multidisciplinary character, from research applied to the project in the works of the Hackenbroich Architekten office to a considerable number of contests, to teaching in advanced studies schools (such as Bauhaus Dessau) or the research projects and the publications in the field of urbanism.
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The second series of FREE ACADEMY classes just ended. For this session we invited Andreea Grecu (cultural manager) and Corneliu Porumboiu (film director).
Andreea Grecu: CULTURAL NETWORKS - COOPERATION AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVE
Corneliu Porumboiu: THE WANDERING ROMANIAN - the presentation and screening of Les amoureux de Dieu and Cabal In Kabul, two documentary films directed by Dan Alexe, followed by a dialogue between Corneliu Porumboiu and Dan Alexe.
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On 11th of March 2010, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted Translating Time: Losses and Gains, an artist talk with Ioana Nemes, one of the participating artists of Comrades of Time.
Ioana Nemes (b.1979) is one of the most acknowledged and exhibited Romanian artists of her generation. She participated, among other shows, in Istanbul Biennial, (2009), U-Turn Copenhagen (2008), Prague Biennial (2007) and Bucharest Biennial (2006). Recently she showed Relics for the Afterfuture (Brown) – a series of sculptures scrutinizing lost Romanian traditional rituals - at Jiri Svestka Berlin. She lives and works in Bucharest.
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On 25th of February PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted Films on Art and Activism an artist talk by Martin Krenn.
Born in 1970, in Vienna, Martin Krenn attends the University of Applied Arts and the Conservatory. He is particularly interested in art in public space and multimedia art, his work focusing on questions regarding the civil society and its confrontation with recent history. Krenn also teaches at the University of Art in Vienna.
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On 18th of February 2010 PAVILION UNICREDIT opened Comrades of Time, an exhibition curated by Joanna Sokolowska.
Participants: Zbynek Baladran (CZ), Grigor Khachatryan (AM), Anna Molska (PL), Ioana Nemes (RO), Skart (SRB), Clemens von Wedemeyer (DE)
“To be con-temporary (…) means to be “with time” rather than “in time.” “Con-temporary” in German is “zeitgenössisch.” As Genosse means “comrade,” to be con-temporary—zeitgenössisch—can thus be understood as being a “comrade of time”—as collaborating with time, helping time when it has problems, when it has difficulties.” (Boris Groys)
starting from left, Razvan Ion,
Joanna Sokolowska, Eugen Radescu
Why do contemporary artists become such active “comrades of time” intervening in the ways in which time is framed by the historical meta-narratives implicit in contemporary social spaces? The exhibition relates this question to artistic practices that confront dilemmas posed by the representation, remembrance and actualisation of the past as far as it concerns projects of socialist and communist modernity. In the artists’ works, two principal interconnected modes of thought can be detected: on the one hand, a reflection on the possible meanings of the layers of history present in architecture and other forms of the organisation of life, in particular questioning the way history is mediated and medialised. Thus, the focus here is on the contemporary conditions of the production of the experience of the past. On the other hand, a strong emphasis is also placed on thinking about the emancipatory aspect of modernity as an unfinished project. From this perspective, the urgent need is to assess modernity’s present-day potential and at the same time critically examine its mistakes.
Modernist ideological projects can be seen with especial intensity in the construction process, in acts of destruction and rebuilding that are inexorably linked with the writing of history and a policing of memory. “Narrative and construction,” notes Ricoeur, “bring about a similar kind of inscription, the one in the endurance of time, the other in the enduringness of materials. Each new building is inscribed in urban space like a narrative within a setting of intertextuality”. Destruction can erase or suspend old histories in time, and thus announce the inception of new narratives. The process of the production and reproduction of the social space in which the evolving urban fabric, architecture and design function forms an interesting challenge for artists, in as much as they interpret it as a palimpsest composed not just of spectacular, visible and physical temporo-spatial layers, but also of multiple invisible and immaterial strata piled on top of one another. Artists are not so much concerned with the uncovering and presentation of an erased text that may once have existed, but encode or reactivate it, exposing the current context in which it might emerge. It is here that artists are active comrades of time, mixing frames recognized from descriptions of history and inventing new trajectories for past events. Interested in the complex nature of the desire to grasp the past, they perform transformations on the senses ascribed to it, making use, for example, of the method of repetition or remakes. Repetition is in fact an actualization of the conditions of production that emerge from a reworking of the past.
The exploration of the traces of a lost utopia in contemporary social space that is present in the works of Clemens von Wedemeyer (“Silberhöhe”, “Die Siedlung”) , Zbyněk Baladrán (“Glossary”, “Socio-fiction II”) and Grigor Khachatryan (“Churches”) is connected with a question as to the mediation of the imagining and remembering of them through the different images and various technologies operative in the field of visual culture: fiction and documentary films, video and television. Probing images through different modes of their “technical reproducibility” they get to the very heart of the contemporary immaterial and affective aspect of an economy that generates first and foremost mediated images and desires.
The question of the contemporary emancipatory potential of revolutionary ideas, of socialism and communism, and the role of art in the transformation of society are taken up in the works of Škart (“Our Miracle”) Anna Molska (“W=F*S (Work)”, “P=W:t (Power)”) and Zbyněk Baladrán. What conditions produce the need to even ask such questions today? The artists` suggestions can be seen within the discussions of the problem of the erasing of communism from the history of the societies that experienced it, or the simple treating of it as a mistake, a temporary break in the universal striving towards capitalism. This amnesia and the lack of new political horizons was one of the factors supposed to facilitate the domination of the current paradigm in which antagonisms are subdued. The strength of negated sentiments can lead to the fantasy of reconstructing lost, a-historical, stable and “true” traditions in the sense described by Svetlana Boym as “restorative nostalgia” and to an explosive “return of the repressed.” The artists propose a working through of the past through returning to it and testing its elements today.
Their work on modes of recalling, forgetting or reactivating the former ideas of socialist modernity, elements of which still contribute to the production of the spaces in which we live, enables a reassessment of the contemporary potential of art in relation to the new economy, to forms of organisation of life and to the initiation of collective experiences. (Extras from the publication “Comrades of Time”)
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On January 28, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted The Fiction of the Contemporary: Speculative Collectivity and the Global Transnational, a lecture by Peter Osborne.
Peter Osborne is Professor of Modern European Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, London and an editor of the journal Radical Philosophy. His books include The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (Verso, 1995), Philosophy in Cultural Theory (Routledge, 2000), Conceptual Art (Phaidon, 2002), Marx (Granta, 2005) and (ed.) Walter Benjamin: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory (3 Volumes, Routledge, 2005). His writing on contemporary art includes contributions to Afterall, Art History, October, Oxford Art Journal, and catalogues for Manifesta 5 (San Sebastian, 2004), Time Zones (Tate Modern, 2004), Zones of Contact (2006 Biennale of Sydney), The Quick and the Dead (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2009) and Matias Faldbakken: The Shock of Abstraction (National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo/Ikon, Birmingham 2009). A Spanish edition of his recent essays, El arte más allá de la estética: Ensayos filosóficos sobre el arte contemporáneo, is forthcoming from CENDEAC, Murcia, January 2010.
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On January 21, 2010, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted AUSTRIA AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW ARTS BECAME A TOPIC OF PUBLIC INTEREST EXAMINED OVER A PERIOD OF ABOUT 60 YEARS., a lecture by Karin Cervenka.
Karin Cervenka, 1969, Vienna, graduated in philology at the University of Vienna, specialized in modern literature and translation science, translator of French and Spanish contemporary literature, since 1991 working for the Ministry of European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria, since 1997 dedicates herself entirely to art management, from 2003 to 2008 director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Madrid, since 2008 director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bucharest. The Austrian Cultural Forum in Bucharest depends on the foreign ministry. It focuses on art networking in Middle and Southeast Europe.
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100 ROMANIAN MINUTES
Curator: Andrei Craciun
Artists: Stefan Constantinescu, Teodor Graur, Ion Grigorescu, Ciprian Homorodean, Sebastian Moldovan, Corneliu Porumboiu
Romania, the complex of European Romanians and the pride of Romanian Europeans, continues to place itself in the East, incapable of escaping the East-West hierarchy, curse of the Balkans- a linguistic invention adopted much too easily. The way of relating to the local, national, European, global reference points suggests the way we relate to our own nationality, excited by an unconscious nationalism, flat and auto-destructive or tired of our own history and willing to deny it, paralyzed by the incapability of action.
Romanians assume the status of ideological victim of circumstances, reliving the traumas of communism, under the shelter of capitalism. It seems that democracy was too expensive for us to afford the luxury of delving into it; instead we afford the liberty of not getting involved, the liberty of not contributing, and the liberty of not choosing. We establish parties and we suppress the civil society. We dispose of responsibility and we invoke the right to suffer.
Self-criticism and auto-irony are the instruments of the Romanian artist, the result being the self-criticism and auto-irony of society. The artist underlines, draws attention and makes room for inquiries. We become immigrants. Their immigrants, of those that we wanted to be. Romanians seem to want to be themselves, a sort of artificial transposition into something that we don’t understand. The immigrant is the one that suffers. We go everywhere and it seems that everything slips away. We live suspended in an absurd temporality, but on a safe ground.
The contemporary Romanian artist seems touched by the melancholy and fatalism of trying to justify the past through the analysis of rethinking it, trying to question its authenticity, authority and validity. No matter if these artists are actors in famous movies, immigrants in the battle with the “other”, hidden participants in the destruction of a status quo, no matter if they mock reality or get involved in the emotion of the present, they all want to contribute to the new history.
Andrei Craciun (b. 1988) is a curator and theoretician, studying architecture at University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu”, Bucharest. His research and curatorial practice is focused on the relations between architecture, politics and the social sphere. Consequently, he is interested in areas linked to activism, gender, as well as participative architecture. Currently he is working on his new curatorial projects “Utopia of Exotic” and “Destroying Public Harmony”. Since 2008 he is the coordinator of PAVILION UNICREDIT - center for contemporary art & culture and he was appointed as assistant curator for BUCHAREST BIENNALE 2010. Living and working in Bucharest. (Extras from 100 Romanian Minutes publication).
Image: Ciprian Homorodean, 9’00’’, videostill from “I am Luke Skywalker”, 2006. Courtesy of the artist.
100 SWEDISH MINUTES
Curator: Catrin Lundqvist
Artists: Magnus Bartas, Loulou Cherinet, Mats Hjelm, Jesper Nordahl, Marika Orenius, Lina Selander,
Alexander Vaindorf
From the middle of 20th century, Sweden had rapid industrial growth which has contributed to a stable economy. The country adopted the Swedish model that turned Sweden into social, cultural and economical well fare state. This was also the period when immigration increased in Sweden due to the need of labor in Swedish industries.
Sweden did not experience any war for many centuries. Generally Swedish people do not like disputing too much, in stead they prefer coming to consensus based on discussion. People rarely talk about
their political ideologies.
These general ideas about the Swedish political landscape, together with the lack of conflicts and political unrest might make politics, a less frequent subject to Swedish artists. In Sweden today you might find more artists working on how political engagement affects personal life on a psychological level rather than working on political standpoints or artists may find interest in working with political or sociological phenomena abroad.
Catrin Lundqvist is a curator of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and a free-lance curator with her own company Domestic Art. At the Moderna Museet, she is currently working with film, video, and performance-based art, and organising debates and seminars on contemporary art.
From left to right: prof. Bogdan Iacob, theoretician Razvan Ion, curator Andrei Craciun, theoretician Eugen Radescu and prof. Mara Ratiu in the panel discussion.
Curator Andrei Craciun presenting the “100 Romanian Minutes” project.
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On 3rd of December PAVILION UNICREDIT opened Wakefield Meadows, an exhibition curated by Anca Mihulet.
Participants: Adrian Alecu (DE/RO)/ Olivia Mihaltianu (RO)/ >projektgruppe< (DE) / SOSka (UA)/ Adrien Tirtiaux (A/BE)
WAKEFIELD MEADOWS is an artificial living environment that was generated by the real life experiences of the curator and of the artists, created inside the space of Pavilion UniCredit. WAKEFIELD MEADOWS explores the inside of some of today’s oversaturated and artificial living systems and social conventions, caught in an obsessive historical turbine and unable to move forward, every-day life cliches, the middle class capitalist family and the social underground, the consumerist super-structures, the trajectory of classified information and the invasive art market.
One of the starting points of the curatorial debate was the case of Wakefield, the ‘universal character’ from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story with the same title. One day, Wakefield left his house and his wife and then returned after 20 years as if nothing had happened, carrying on with his normal existence. The moral of the story: ‘Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another, and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.’ (excerpt from ‘Wakefield’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne)
The artists featured in the exhibition appropriated the human condition of Wakefield, the misplaced individual, after his return, in the 20th year and infiltrated in apparent sealed environments, becoming insiders, questioning their identity and their place.
from left to rigt, Eugen Radescu, Adrien Tirtiaux, Diane Pernet, Anca Mihulet, Razvan Ion
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On November 26 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted 100 SWEDISH MINUTES, a screening project curated by Catrin Lundqvist and initiated by Razvan Ion and Eugen Radescu, followed by a Q&A session with the curator.
Catrin Lundqvist
Artists: Magnus Bartas, Loulou Cherinet, Mats Hjelm, Jesper Nordahl, Marika Orenius, Lina Selander and Alexander Vaindorf.
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On November 21 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted ECONOMY OF EFFORT, a screening project curated by Ioana Nitu and Silvia Vasilescu, followed by a Q&A with the curators.
Participants: Valerie Soe, Gabriel de la Mora, Diane Nerwen, Les Leveque, Mumia Abu-Jamal (Prison Radio)
Ioana Nitu (left), Silvia Vasilescu (right)
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On November 13 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted the screening of ANONYMOUS NOMAD, a video of the artists Trygve Luktvasslimo and Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, followed by a session of Q&A with the artists.
Ditte Lyngkaer Pedersen (left)
Trygve Luktvasslimo (right)
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On November 10, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture by Viorel Vizureanu, under the title SKETCH FOR A TYPOLOGY OF SPATIALITY.
Viorel Vizureanu is professor of philosophy at University of Bucharest.
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On October 29 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted the screening of 100 Romanian Minutes, a project curated by Andrei Craciun and initiated by Razvan Ion and Eugen Radescu and also the Launching of issue 13 of PAVILION journal for politics and culture, with the topic Medicine Sociale.
Teodor Graur (left)
Andrei Craciun (right)
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On October 22, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted, in the frame of “EXPLORING THE RETURN OF REPRESSION”, a lecture by Urban Larssen, social anthropologist, under the title “CASA SCANTEII: CONTROLLED MEDIA FACTORY”
Urban Larsen
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On October 15, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted, under the title CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, a lecture by Sina Najafi, editor-in-chief of CABINET magazine, New York.
Sina Najafi
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On October 7, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted in the frame of EXPLORING THE RETURN OF REPRESSION, a dialogue between Razvan Ion (curator of the exhibition and director of PAVILION UNICREDIT) and Sebastian Moldovan (artist, participant in the exhibition), under the title “A Red Tomato Always Needs a Walking Stick”.
Razvan Ion (left)
Sebastian Moldovan (right)
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On September 10 PAVILION UNICREDIT opened EXPLORING THE RETURN OF REPRESSION, an exhibition curated by Razvan Ion.
The return of the repressed is a crucial theme, a key to understanding recent history. “The project of the West, the Nietzschean project, has been to drive out religion and to produce a secular society in which men and women make their own values because morality is gone. Then suddenly radical religion returns from the Third World. How can you not laugh at that? How can you not find that a deep historical irony?” (Hanif Kureishi, in International Herald Tribune).
According to Freud, the very act of entering into civilized society entails the repression of various archaic, primitive desires. For Freud repression is a normal part of human development; indeed, the analysis of dreams, literature, jokes, and “Freudian slips” illustrates the ways that our secret desires continue to find outlet in perfectly well-adjusted individuals. However, when we are faced with obstacles to satisfaction of our libido’s cathexis, when we experience traumatic events, or when we remain fixated on earlier phases of our development, the conflict between the libido and the ego (or between the ego and the superego) can lead to alternative sexual discharges.
The return of the repressed is the process whereby repressed elements, preserved in the unconscious, tend to reappear, in consciousness or in behavior, in the shape of secondary and more or less unrecognizable “derivatives of the unconscious.” This return of the repressed, of ideologies forced to marginalization, of sexuality subject to forced secrecy, has resulted, in recent years, in an almost dramatic change of a society filled with anguish, hallucinations, repression imposed by unnecessary regulations that serve to the repressive violence of governments against their own citizens. (Excerpt from the text “Exploring the return of repression” by Razvan Ion).
Participants: Luke Fowler (GB), Jean Genet (FR), Hanif Kureishi (GB), Thomas Hirschhorn (CH), Renzo Martens (NL/CG), Alex Mirutziu (RO), Naeem Mohaiemen (BD), Sebastian Moldovan (RO), Taller Popular De Serigrafia (AR), Colm Toibin (IE), Michel Tournier (FR), Pavilion Resource Room (RO)
The exhibition will be open for public until November 22, 2009.
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Thursday, 17th September, 2009, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a preview lecture of FREE ACADEMY, held by Anca Mihulet, with the topic: Curatorship in Times of Trouble.
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Friday, 11th September, 2009, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a preview lecture of FREE ACADEMY, held by ADRIAN MAJURU, with the topic: AD AND COMMERCE: BUSINESS AND BEHAVIOR.
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On 14th of July Filippo Maggia, Chief Curator of the Photographic Collection of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, and Andrea Cossu visited PAVILION.
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The lecture ‘Curator in progress. About a practice in permanent evolution’ held by Enrico Lunghi was the introduction to the international curatorial symposium which is taking place in Plovdiv at the end of October. The project is co-organised by the New Bulgarian University Sofia and the Centre for Contemporary Art ‘Banja Starinna’, Plovdiv with the kind support of the European Cultural Foundation and the Sachsen-Anhalt Meeting-point Centre. Partners of the project are Goethe-Institut Sofia, Pavilion Unicredit, Bucharest and Feinkost Gallery, Berlin.
Image from the lecture
Yana Kostova (right), curator and in the middle Enrico Lunghi.
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In the night between 12th and 13th of June, PAVILION UNICREDIT participated in the White Night of the Galleries program.
Open air hopscotch: Public Space Captive With No Cause
The best player was rewarded with a batch of books extracted from our PAVILION RESOURCE ROOM + the latest album of vaduvaBOB.
All participants got PAVILION - journal for politics and culture - no. 13 “MEDECINE SOCIALE” (just released that day).
Special treat concert: our favourite psychosexual dirge punk band vaduvaBOB.
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Oliver Ressler: The Alter-Globalization Movement - Interventions with Art in Political Movements. A live dialogue with Razvan Ion. June 18, 2009.
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On June 11 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a dialogue between Carlos Aires and Eugen Radescu, with the title Happily Ever After.
Carlos Aires is a Spanish artist www.carlosaires.com
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On 10th of June PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture/performance of Saviana Stanescu, with the title (r)EVOLUTION.
Saviana Stanescu is a well known romanian playwright who lives and works in New York, USA.
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On 8th of June PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a seminar of an architecture class from the University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest.
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On 4th of June PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a dialogue between Kristoffer Ardena and Razvan Ion, with the title IN SEARCH OF MEMORY LOST.
Kristoffer Ardena is a philipino-spanish artist living in Madrid.
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In May 23 the Director of Art in General, together with a group of curators visited PAVILION UNICREDIT.
From left to right, MARIANNA DOBKWSKA (curator at Canter for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle) , NINA HORISAKI-CHRISTENS (Assistant Curator at Art in General, BRANKO FRANCESCHI (curator), ANNE BARLOW (Director of Art in General NY)
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On May 21 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture by Razvan Tupa with the topic Politics of Poetics.
Razvan Tupa is a poet and a cultural journalist.
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On May 13 PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture by Catalin Avramescu, with the topic The Cannibal at the Last Judgement. The Philosophy of Cannibalism.
Catalin Avramescu is a philosopher and professor at Bucharest University.
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On 7th of May, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted a lecture by Adrian Majuru, with the topic The City on Our Face.
Adrian Majuru is a historian and an antropologist who wrote nine books on the antropology and history of Bucharest.
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On April 30, PAVILION UNICREDIT hosted the opening of HOW INNOCENT IS THAT?, an exhibition curated by Eugen Radescu, opened for the public until July 05.
Participants: AES+F (Rusia), Carlos Aires (Spain), Juan delGado (Spain/UK), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Germany).
Andrei Craciun (left), coordinator of PAVILION UNICREDIT, Razvan Ion (centre), Director of PAVILION UNICREDIT and Eugen Radescu (right), curator of the show.
“In our times, who can pay much attention to the massacre of the innocence? The innocents of yesterday are sending the bombs of today, these supreme gifts of helplessness, infamy and failure. There is an East of the innocence, like there is a West of the innocents. As I am living in Romania - the state and paideuma of innocence in its unbalanced, unhappy and dumb form - I imagined the “stranger”, with his “strangeness”, was something - something else (together with his alter). Far from the truth. We are all false, disintegrated, miserable, and lacking innocence. Lacking interest. Civilization doesn’t mean the steam engine, but it means civility, the ability to have civic relationships, to follow judicial norms. Somehow, all these attributes are lost. We have forgotten our civility; we lost our civilization. We have become innocent vacuum cleaners and we are sucking in ignorance, pain, ardour, hatred, show. Nowadays it is easier to kill one thousand people than say “Have a good day”. (quoted from Eugen Radescu’s book “HOW INNOCENT IS THAT?)
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Every week PAVILION UNICREDIT hosts informal meeting of students, artists, curators, cultural managers. The topics are chosen from the books/publications of PAVILION RESOURSE ROOM.
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Felix Vogel, curator of BB4 held a press conference in Bucharest.
More on www.bucharestbiennale.org
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PAVILION is part of WE LOVE MAGAZINE LIBRARY in Tokio.
Details here: http://www.magazinelibrary.jp/
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After 3 years of hard work we have completed our tools with PAVILION UNICREDIT - center for contemporary art. After the magazine and Bucharest Biennale, with PAVILION UNICREDIT we are completed.
At the opening there were more than 50 journalists who represented newspapers, tv channels, radios and magazines from around the world. At the opening night on 19th of February 2009 the space seemed too tight and small. All 450 sqm were occupied. More than 350 people attended and we are sorry we did not expect that. Some people had to wait in front to enter the center.
More about the program here: www.pavilionunicredit.ro
And some images (photo Ioana Nitu).
At the press conference, part of the team (from left to right): Lia Perjovschi, Eugen Radescu, Andrei Craciun, Ioana Roescu, Razvan Ion.
Silvia Vasilescu, our education & publications manager, acting as a tv reporter.
The journalists.
Lia Perjovschi made a tour of the exhibition with all journalists.
Felix Vogel, curator of Bucharest Biennale 4 and Ion Grigorescu, one of the legendary Romanian artists.
The space was too small for so many people that wanted to be at the opening.
Part of the team (from left to right): Andrei craciun, eugen radescu, Razvan Ion, Alex enachioaie, Anca Nuta, Ioana Roescu.
Debate after the opening. Only the team. Facing the camera first on the left, our assistant director Ioana Nitu.
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After months of hard work and unexpected problems PAVILION UNICREDIT - center for contemporary art & culture - will be opened on the 19th of February 19.00 hours. Please visit www.pavilionunicredit.ro for more details.
Here is a pdf file with amazing images (photo by Ioana Nitu): http://www.pavilionunicredit.org/photo_PU.pdf
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The underconstruction space.
The much anticipated PAVILION UNICREDIT - center for contemporary art & culture is underconstruction. It will have 270 sqm of exhibition space and 140 sqm of offices and facilities (including the CAA/CAA wonderful archive of books and publications put together by Lia & Dan Perjovschi and PAVILION RESOURCE ROOM put together by Razvan Ion and Eugen Radescu).
The author of the project design is the fabulous architect Adriana Mereuta.
Expected opening: February 19, 2009 — 19.00 hours.
Our under-construction web address: www.pavilionunicredit.ro
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PAVILION magazine was exhibited here:
Dan Perjovschi
Chestii tiparite/ Printed stuff
Galeria Posibila, Bucharest
28. 11. 2008 - 08. 02. 2009
Galeria Posibila is pleased to announce the first Bucharest retrospective of the internationally acclaimed Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi. His 20-year practice which has revolutionized drawing is seen through the printed materials it has resulted in, from artist books or self-published newspapers to the complete collection of 22 opposition magazine, in which he has contributed ever since 1990.
A new artist book has been published on the occasion of the exhibition, comprising three of Perjovschi’s projects in 2008. As always, the book mirrors the preparatory note-books of each project, the printed material functioning as an archive of an otherwise ephemeral practice. His witty, politically charged comments on the cities of Bucharest, Brussels and Chisinau are intertwined in this pocket-size catalogue, of which a special edition of 20 includes an original drawing.
Image: Pavilion postcards and the magazine in Dan Perjovschi’s exhibition. Photo: Ioana Nitu.
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5. MSE Meeting (Middle-South-East Meeting) Network Practice
Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem
Pasteurova 9, 400 01 Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic
28/29 November 2008
The idea of the MSE Meetings (MSE stands for Middle-South-East Europe) is to gather leaders of art initatives & institutions, curators and
theoreticians with a focus on the Middle-South-Eastern European region in order to exchange knowledge, information and experiences and
to discuss the specific topic of the Meeting. The Meetings are held biannual and always in different countries.
This edition of MSE Meeting will put its focus on the idea of networking itself. Therefore a number of representatives from other
comparable networks and leaders of institutions respectively curators who work with network related ideas and structures will be invited
to join the Meeting in order to compare and discuss the different conceptions of existing networks and the role they can play in further
developing of international collaborative projects among participants of such networks. Questions of different impact of a specific project idea
on particular art scenes will be as well raised as challenges of collaboration in the moment of different basic conceptions of participating art
initiatives and further on disproportions in the MSE region regarding the ability to get projects funded.
FRIDAY, 28/11/2008
A) SWAPING ENERGY IN AND OUT
About institutions and activities which on the one hand bring international input into their local contexts, into their institutions and programmes
and, on the other, and the other way around, try to foster local activities and transport them abroad. Creativity is needed in developing new
models of collaboration especially when the institutions do not have much support on a local administrative level or first have to become
established on the international art map.
10:00 10:30 Keynote speech: Iara Boubnova / ICA Institute of Contemporary Art (Sofia)
10:30 10:50 Rael Artel / Public Preparation (Tallinn)
10:50 11:10 Els Hanappe / ITYS Institute for Contemporary Art and Thought (Athens)
11:10 11:30 Vlad Morariu / Vector Cultural Association (Iasi)
11:30 11:50 Helen Hirsch / Kunstmuseum Thun (Thun)
11:50 12:20 Discussion
Moderators: Michal Kolecek & Zdena Koleckova / FAD UJEP Faculty of Art and Design
at Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem (Usti nad Labem)
13:00 15:00 Lunch break
B) LINKING DIFFERENT FIELDS: ART, ACTIVISM & SCIENCE
About the development of networks beyond the borders of art and the role of art spaces in multidisciplinary discourses. To which spheres can
art be connected? The connections to the fields of political activism and social science are of special interest. Are there possible synergies
and possibilities to widen the audience? What about the interest and response from activists, scientists and NGOs? Can art have an influence
on political and social discourses?
15:00 15:30 Keynote speech: Razvan Ion / Bucharest Biennale, Pavilion magazine (Bucharest)
15:30 15:50 Antonia Majaca, Ivana Bago / Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery (Zagreb)
15:50 16:10 Martin Krenn / IG Bildende Kunst (Vienna)
16:10 16:30 Lise Skou, Ditte Lyngkaer / rum46 (Aarhus)
16:30 17:00 Discussion
Moderator: Luchezar Boyadjiev / ICA Institute of Contemporary Art (Sofia)
SATURDAY, 29/11/2008
C) NETWORKING CULTURE
About the importance of networks in the daily practice. How networks are conceived, how they are growing and how they are established.
About the differences between networks conceived for longer duration and such for temporary, project-based use. What about the networks
initiated by established institutions and such emerging from small initiatives? Does networking help to catch the publics eye, which is hard to
catch without? How can the further development of networks be managed?
10:00 10:30 Keynote speech: Peter Mrtenbck, Helge Moshammer / Networked Cultures (London / Vienna)
10:30 10:50 Ana Dzokic, Marc Neelen / STEALTH.unlimited (Rotterdam)
10:50 11:10 Antje Weitzel, Dortje Drechsel / uqbar (Berlin)
11:10 11:30 Vit Havranek, Zbynek Baladran / Tranzitdisplay (Prague)
11:30 11:50 Elena Tsvetaeva / NCCA National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad)
11:50 12:20 Discussion
Moderator: Alenka Gregoric / Skuc Gallery (Ljubljana)
13:00 15:00 Lunch break
D) LOCAL CONNECTING / NEIGHBOURHOODS
About the importance of networks in a regional context. What is in focus in the work of institutions which actively play their role in
a geographical region, within a country or cross border connecting institutions in neighbouring countries. Can such activities gain importance
on an international level? On which requirements is the desire for local networking based?
15:00 15:30 Keynote speech: Basak Senova / NOMAD (Istanbul)
15:30 15:50 Ivana Marjanovic, Vida Knezevic / Kontekst Gallery (Belgrade)
15:50 16:10 Stefan Rusu / [ksa:k] Center for Contemporary Art (Chisinau)
16:10 16:30 Monika Szewczyk / Arsenal Gallery (Bialystok)
16:30 16:50 Yane Calovski / press to exit project space (Skopje)
16:50 17:20 Discussion
Moderators: Margarethe Makovec & Anton Lederer / < rotor > association for contemporary art (Graz)
SPECIAL GUESTS:
Filip Radunovic, Christiane Erharter / ERSTE Foundation (Vienna)
Nino Tchogoshvili / Art Academy Tbilissi (Tbilissi)
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Bucharest Biennale participated in “All Biennials of the World Today” organized by The Fundao Bienal de So Paulo and the curators of the 28th Bienalle.
A large library installed on the pavilion’s third floor, consisting of an archive, an auditorium, a meeting room, a reading room, a computer hall with internet access, and a collection of 600 publications from 72 countries. The library is based on the collections of the Archive Wanda Svevo of the So Paulo Biennial’s Foundation, and will frame and support the cycle of conferences to take place between October and November 2008.
Image: PAVILION reader of Bucharest Biennale 3 exhibited. Courtesy of So Paulo Biennial.
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APEX ART NEW YORK
Thursday, November 13, 6:30 pm
How innocent is that?
Eugen Radescu and Bosko Blagojevic in conversation about the state of innocence in Eastern Europe.
Eugen Radescu is an independent curator, co-founder, and co-publisher at Pavilion magazine, chairman of artphoto asc., and co-director of Bucharest Biennale. Eugen Radescu is in residence with apexart as the recipient of a CEC ArtsLink Fellowship.
Bosko Blagojevic is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn. His writing on art and culture has appeared in a variety of media both online and off, including recently the journals Afterimage, USELESS and Art Asia Pacific, as well as several artist’s publications. He, along with Xenia Pachikov, is co-founder and director of Platform for Pedagogy, a New York-based organization working to advance a culture of cross-disciplinary public lecture attendance and develop the lecture as form.
Here you can download the podcast of the panel discussion: http://www.apexart.org/events/media/radescu.mp3
www.apexart.org
Image: Eugen Radescu and Bosko Blagojevic in front of the Apex audience.
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With the help of IASPIS (special thanks to Cecilia Widenheim and Suzi Ersahin) and ICR Stockholm (special thanks to Giorgiana Zachia and Dan Shafran) we made a research trip in Stockholm in order to establish contacts for our new upcoming PAVILION UNICREDIT center for contemporary art & culture.
We visited/met with the directors/curators from:
Iaspis (www.iaspis.com)
Marabou Parken (www.marabouparken.se)
Bonniers Konsthall (www.bonnierskonsthall.se)
Magasin 3 (www.magasin3.com)
Konsthall C (www.konsthallc.se)
Index (www.indexfoundation.se)
Botkyrka Konsthall (www.botkyrka.se)
Labyrint Press
Tensta Konsthall (www.tenstakonsthall.se)
BAC (www.balticartcenter.com)
Thank you for all the cooperation offers from all the directors above.
In the same time in Umea, at BildtMuseet was open the exhibition of Bucharest Biennale 3 (www.bildmuseet.umu.se)
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Badischer Kunstverein
Waldstrae 3, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany
04 July - 07 September 2008
Video- and Periodical-Archive
PAVILION
contemporary art & culture magazine
Bucharest, Rumania
Pavilion / # 10-11 What was socialism, and what comes next?, 2008
PAVILION is an art- and culture-magazine published in Bucharest and operating internationally. Its title refers to the relative, temporary structure of contemporary art. As a public platform it serves to introduce other projects and to extend the concept of the magazine.
The double edition What Was Socialism And What Comes Next? (#10-11) seeks to bring the discourse concerning (post-)socialism up to date and inquires into its relevance for contemporary art production. The current edition Being Here. Mapping The Contemporary(#12) conceives of itself on the one hand as documentation of the 3rd Bucharest Biennale, and on the other hand as a discourse-platform and reader for the exhibition. It is thematically structured around practices and processes of mapping.
30 July, 17.00 - Live talk with the editors Razvan Ion & Eugen Radescu
http://www.badischer-kunstverein.de/index.php?Direction=Program&Detail=72
Image from the exhibition.
Images from the debate. From left to right in the above image: Eugen Radescu (chairman of Pavilion), Felix Vogel (curator of Bucharest Biennale 4), Razvan Ion (director of Pavilion), Anja Casser (curator, director of Badischer Kunstverein).
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Brian Holmes lecture : “Escape the Overcode: Guattaris Schizoanalytic Cartographies”
Are you talking to me? Live discussions on knowledge production, gender politics and feminist strategies. Participants: h.arta, Marina Grzinic, Post Conceptual Art Class.
“You come to see the show and youll get an extra burger!” A performance - dance show by Mihai Mihalcea & Solitude Project.
“Art, sport, and shopping from modernist utopia to neoliberal dystopia.” Lecture of Ben Seymour and Anthony Iles (UK).
Utopia Travel. A project by: Emanuel Danesch and David Rych
(images from the opening night)
Safe Mapping AKA They Are Watching!
Artists: Loading Open LAB aka Magdalena & Bogdan Pelmus, Bucharest, Romania, Ulysses Castellanos, Faisal Anwar, Theo Pelmus, Ottawa & Toronto, Canada.
Physical–Emotional Map of the Capital City. A lecture by Anca Ionita
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The press conference hosted more people than we expected. Around 250 people attended. For Bucharest it was the biggest international press conference ever. Thank you to all interested in BB3.
At the table (from left to right): Eugen Radescu (director BB3), Mirela Valeanu (brand manager Absolut), Ioana Paun (communication director UniCredit), Jan-Erik Lundstrom (curator), Johan Sjostrom (curator), Oana Ailenei (brand manager Pilsner Urquel), Razvan Ion (director BB3).
The first stop for the lecture-performance of the curators and the first stop of the bus tour was at Feeria for the performance of Kristoffer Ardena.
The bus tour was long but everybody was happy. Except the police that didn’t know why so many people invaded the main boulevard of Bucharest. For a few minutes the side walk was completely blocked. Every venue was visited, the curators performed a lecture about the concept and the current participants/artists talked shortly about the works.
At the end of the day the party was nice. Thank you Pilsner Urquell.
All images by Alexandra Mihalcea.
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The installation of BUCHAREST BIENNALE 3 (May 23 - June 21, 2008).
All images by Alexandra Mihalcea.
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Same presentation as we did in Stockholm, Madrid, Lisboa, Paris, Cluj. Location: K�nstlerhaus Bethanien and ICR.
Thanks to our friends: Christoph Tannert and Adriana Popescu.
Part of our team joined us: Vlad Panait, Alexandru Stamo-Bugnariu and Andreea Grigore.
In the studio of Mona Hatoum with Eugen Radescu & Felix Vogel.
At the Romanian Cultural Institute (from left Eugen Radescu, Razvan Ion, Felix Vogel and director of ICR, Adriana Popescu)
At K�nstlerhaus Bethanien. From left: Christoph Tannert, director K�nstlerhaus Bethanien, Adriana Popescu, director ICR, Jan Svenungsson, artist BB3, Karina Nimmerfall, artist BB3, Felix Vogel, Eugen Radescu and Razvan Ion.
Part of the team of BB3 in the magnificent garden of ICR Berlin. From left: Andreea Grigore, Razvan Ion, Vlad Panait, Alexandru-Stamo Bugnariu, Ana-Maria Post, Eugen Radescu.
Part of BB3 team in a location of bb5 (berlin biennale).
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Same presentation as we did in Stockholm, Madrid, Lisboa, Paris. Location: Art Academy in Cluj, Romania.
Thanks to our friends: prof. Mara Ratiu and prof. Bogdan Iacob. With special support of prof. Cosmin Marian.
Bogdan Iacob (professor) introducing Razvan Ion (co-director BB3).
Razvan Ion presenting the BB3.
Adrian Matei (participating artist in BB3) presenting his work.
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Between 03-29 February 2008, at the invitation of Romanian Cultural Institutes in Madrid, Lisboa and Paris we visited several spaces and we lectured about BB3 and Pavilion at La Casa Encendida - Madrid, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum - Lisbon and Romanian Cultural Institute - Paris. See www.pavilionmagazine.org and www.bucharestbiennale.org for details about the program in each city.
Many thanks to our friends: Democracia (Pablo Espana, Ivan Lopez), Nuno Faria, Manuel Da Costa Cabral, Miguel Wandschneider, Horia Barna, Virgil Mihaiu, Anca Milu, Cristina Gavrila, Irina Ionescu, Kristoffer Ardena, Dan Perjovschi.
PARIS
Renaud August-Dormeuil (participating artist in BB3) explaining his work to Eugen Radescu.
Eugen Radescu (co-editor Pavilion & co-director Bucharest Biennale) & Felix Vogel (curator & theoretician) in Mona Hatoum’s exhibition in Paris.
MADRID
Presentation at La Casa Encendida (from left to right: Razvan Ion, Kristoffer Ardena (artist participant in BB3), Eugen Radescu and Horia Barna (director of ICR Madrid).
LISBON
Presentation at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (from right to left: Eugen Radescu - co-director BB3, Virgil Mihaiu - director of ICR Lisbon, Manuel Da Costa Cabral - financial director of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Razvan Ion - co-director BB3, Nuno Faria - curator & counsellor of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Eugen Radescu & Virgil Mihaiu in front of ICR Lisbon.
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Johan Sjostrom & Jan-Erik Lundstrom, the appointed curators of Bucharest Biennale 3 and two of the selected artists held a press conference in Bucharest revealing the complete list of artists and venues. More about in press, artists and venues section of the website.
At the press conference were present Lia Perjovschi and Adrian Matei (two of the artists selected for the BB3).
Special guest was Oana Ailenei, international brands - brand manager, representative of the main sponsor Pilsner Urquell.
From right to left: Adrian Matei, Lia Perjovschi, Jan-Erik Lundstrom, Oana Ailenei and Eugen Radescu (co-director BB3).
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November 21, 2007, 18.30 h.
EMOTIONAL GEOGRAPHIES - URBAN MYTHS
Lecture by Adrian Majuru
National Center for Dance, Bucharest
Bd. Nicolae Balcescu, nr. 2 (TNB, 4th Floor, Ronda Hall)
History also maps apparently imperceptible dimensions. These are difficult to detect, deviate and calatogue, since they easily traverse different historical periods, however, once they have penetrated the imperceptible, answers to secular questions may be unveiled. How come we often forget where we started from? How come doing good has a negative connotation? How come “the asses never forigive one of their kind for having risen above media”? (Stefan Zeletin, “From the land of asses”). The emotional geographies are cartogaphies, whose historical fluctuation traverses many epochs and social hierarchies. They are the most sensitive sensors, through which nature strives for or forces an adaptation in a history of its own!
The lecture of Adrian Majuru deals with an emotional cartography of Bucharest, which in a way anticipates the theme of next year’s BUCHAREST BIENNALE 3: “Being here. Mapping the Contemporary” curated by Jan-Erik Lundstrom si Johan Sjostrom.
Adrian Majuru (born 1968, Bucharest) coordinates Folk Art Museum “Dr. Nicolae Minovici” and is one of the initiators behind the founding of the Museum of Urban Anthropology. He is the author of several publications, such as Bucharest of the outskirts or the periphery as a mode of existence (Compania 2003) and Childhood according to romanians (Compania, 2006).
Adrian Majuru starting the lecture.
Face to face with the public for the last questions.
Supported by:
PAVILION | art & culture magazine
www.pavilionmagazine.org
Partner:
Centrul National al Dansului Bucuresti
www.cndb.ro
Media Partners:
Alternativ.ro
Feeder.ro
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Bucharest Biennale - Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art - generated by Pavilion, integrates the city in its curatorial project, proposing both a spatial and temporal, itinerant trajectory to the visitor, which leads to the discovery of hidden geographies.
Despite being in a rather introductory stage, the Bucharest Biennale has already positioned itself internationally, and the third edition is expected to express the growing potential of this type of artistic encounter. BB3 questions cartography and proposes a remapping of contemporary art, in extending the art concept towards discursive manifestations with a sociopolitical impact.
Between 23-28 October 2007, at the invitation of Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, we visited several spaces in Stockholm and Goteborg and we lectured about BB3 and Pavilion.
THE PROGRAM:
24 October 2007
ICR Stockholm, Skeppsbron 20, Stockholm
18.00 h
The Magazine as a Temporary Structure
A lecture by Eugen Radescu (RO) on the structure of Pavilion � contemporary art & culture magazine.
The magazine is a structure, which is mainly located in the present, although it sometimes deals with the recent past and is often used as a source of reference for the future � in the future as a reference to the past - and it sometimes presents clairvoyant visions of the future. The mission of a magazine for contemporary art and culture is to analyze the present and to make a statement about what this present could be � the decision of �which present� to display comes with certain responsibility.
It is no longer possible to make a clear distinction between politics and art/aesthetics. Therefore, it could be viewed as one of the main missions of a contemporary magazine to have a clear vision of the present and to make an analysis of the strategies of representation by means of aesthetics, ethics and politics. This undertaking can only be successful, if the magazine maintains its temporary structure.
19.00h
BB3. Being Here. Mapping the Contemporary
Live talk on the topic of Bucharest Biennale 3.
Participants: Maria Lantz (SE), Jan-Erik Lundstrom (SE), Razvan Ion (RO), Eugen Radescu (RO).
Mapping is, in fact, not a mimetic exercise, a process of analogue imitation by way of reduction and abstraction, a means towards the splendid and refractory lives of copies and reproductions. Maps are, rather, parallel worlds, rich and powerful out of their own specific properties, producers of other spaces and alternative geographies. And exactly because of this: resourceful and productive and beautiful instrumentalities for the contemporary moment, for navigation ? or withdrawal? In these strange times, in the midst of the landscapes of terror, fear and loss, of the territories of restricted movement, control and surveillance, of borders which are walls, of globalization with its promises and defeats.
Curated by Jan-Erik Lundstrom & Johan Sjostrom, BB3 (23 May � 21 June 2008) attends to the geographical turn in contemporary creativity and current representational practices.
Bucharest Biennale is proudly supported by Pilsner Urquell.
Launch of the latest issue of PAVILION “What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next”.
Open buffet.
25 October 2007, 12.30 PM
Galleri Mejan, Flaggmansvogen 1, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm (in front of Moderna Museet)
Political Statement of the Biennale
Open lunch talk with Eugen Radescu (RO) & Razvan Ion (RO)
Participants: students of the Royal University College of Fine Arts and the public.
THE PEOPLE:
Maria Lantz
Artist and teacher at the Royal University College of Fine Arts. She is also editor of Motiv magazine. She has exhibited widely and in 2008 will be part of Bucharest Biennale 3.
Jan-Erik Lundstrom
Born in 1958, Jan Lundstrom is the director of BildMuseet, Umeo University in Umeo Sweden, a museum of contemporary art and visual culture. He is equally involved in curating, organizing, giving lectures and writing. Previously, he was the curator of the Tirana Biennial, as well as the Thessaloniki Biennial. Furthermore, he is a guest professor at HISK in Antwerp, Belgium and at the Kunstakademie in Oslo, Norway. Jan Lundstrom is a prolific international lecturer and writer, having contributed to various international symposia and to cultural magazines such as Glonta, European Photography, Paletten and tema celeste. He was appointed curator of Bucharest Biennale 3 together with Johan Sjostrom.
Razvan Ion
Theoretician and political activist. Co-editor of Pavilion and co-director of the Bucharest Biennale. Razvan Ion has given lectures at University of California, (Berkeley), Headlands Center for the Arts, California, O3one, Belgrade, Facultatea de Stiinte Politice, Cluj, Facultatea de Arte, Timisoara, etc. His studies and texts have been published in various magazines. Razvan Ion is living and working in Bucharest.
Eugen Radescu
Curator, theoretician and co-editor of PAVILION. Eugen Radescu has produced art projects and mixed media performance, and has given lectures at the Art Academy in Timisoara. He was appointed curator for the 1st Bucharest Biennale, where he produced the exhibition “identity_factories�. Eugen Radescu writes for various art magazines and is currently working on the curatorial project “How Innocent Is That?” and his book “Moral Relativity and Ethics”. In 2006, he was appointed co-director of the Bucharest Biennale (together with Razvan Ion). Eugen Radescu is living and working in Bucharest.
The visit happened because of: Dan Shafran, Stefan Constantinescu, Giorgiana Zachia, Maria Lantz, Jan-Erik Lundstrom, Raluca Mihu, Corina Truta and all the team of ICR Stockholm + Bucharest.
THE VISITS
At:
AK28 (independent artist-run-space)
www.ak28.org
Candyland (independent artist-run-space)
www.glimp.se/candyland/
Moderna Museet
www.modernamuseet.se
Goteborg Konsthall
www.konsthallen.goteborg.se
Goteborg Biennial
http://www.rodasten.se/biennalen.asp
And we met the curators of Goteborg Biennial, Joa Ljungberg and Edi Muka (which is also the director of Tirana Biennale).
AND SOME IMAGES:
From right to left: Eugen Radescu (co-director BB3), Henrik Eriksson (artist and member of Ak28), Johanna Gustafsson (artist and member of Ak28).
Magnus Liistamo (director of FrontierGoodies, member of AK28) and Johanna Gustafsson.
Jan-Erik Lundstrom (the co-curator together with Johan Sjostrom of Bucharest Biennale 3) during his presentation at Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm.
From right to left: Eugen Radescu (co-director of BB, co-editor of Pavilion), Dan Shafran (director of Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm), Giorgiana Zachia (deputy director of Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm.), Razvan Ion (co-director of BB, co-editor of Pavilion).
One night we went out. In the window of a shoe maker, a surprise: water proof shoes made in Romania. A special brand we never heard of.
One morning we had another surprise: someone stuck a flyer with the BB3 in the street.
Virpi Nasanen (director of Goteborg Biennial) visiting the biennial with Eugen Radescu.
Stefan Constantinescu (Swedish artist of Romanian origin), one of the initiators of BB3 at Stockholm.
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BUCHAREST BIENNALE 3 (parallel event)
proudly sponsored by Pilsner Urquell
YOSHINORI NIWA
07.August.2007
11.00 hours | Bucuresti, Piata Universitatii (in front of National Theatre)
“Kite flying with local people”
Making a flying kite using the trash of Bucharest, he will try to fly the kite in Bucharest.
12.30 hours | Bucuresti, Centrul National al Dansului (TNB floor 3/4)
“Kites, Catrina, Chickens and more”
Artist talk of Yoshinori Niwa
In Japan, for the celebration of the New Year in early january, people traditionally fly kites. Usually made out of paper, taking mythical forms such as Octopus, Demon, Animals, etc. The project in Bucharest is to fly kites made out of garbage collected from the streets of the city, i.e. plastic bags and/or cardboards. This action-art project is a way to collaborate with the people from Bucharest for the making of the kites, and in parallel it constitutes a communicating mixture of Japanese and Romanian culture. Local and global categories are under the scrutiny through this aesthetic action. Trash is part of the culture of any city, and in the garbage one may find the vestiges of international corporations, such as fast food chains, mixed with packaging from local producers. The kite will mix them reconstituting the microcosmos of Bucharest. This kite will be the material expression of commodity distribution system, a witness of contemporary global capitalism, and a commentary on the consumer society in Bucharest. The flying kite is untouchable, but it touches us and will make us rethink our socio-political context. The experience of collectively working on a kite with local people may remain in the memory of Bucharest cityscape.
Yoshinori Niwa is a physical performance artist who often incorporates animals, plants, and the environment into his work. Niwa’s aim is to explore how to live with others, especially those of other cultures and social classes. Niwa has performed works in Britain, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, and Slovakia. In addition to his performance work, Niwa is a curator and festival organizer. Niwa is currently coordinating an international art festival titled “Artist as Activist” in Tokyo. www.niwa-staff.org
Supported by:
Eco Rom Ambalaje / www.ecoromambalaje.ro
Whirlpool Romania / www.whirlpool.ro
PAVILION | art & culture magazine / www.pavilionmagazine.org
Partner:
National Center for Dance Bucharest / www.cndb.ro
Media Partners:
24FUN
Cotidianul
Alternativ.ro
Feeder.ro
Special thanks to Bucharest Municipality.
Despite the heavy rain Yoshinori Niwa was trying to fly the kite in Bucharest. Press and locals are watching the performance.
Alex Balasescu (anthropologist) trying to fly a kite with Yoshinori Niwa.
Eugen Radescu (co-director Bucharest Biennale) and Dana Porlogea (actress) flying a kite.
Talk with Dan Perjovschi in his studio.
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Exhibition / Travelling Video Installation
DIS-ECONOMY OF LIFE
Migratory Aesthetics, Travelling Concepts & Organization of Economic Life
CINEMA SUITCASE / Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Artists: Mieke Bal, Zen Marie, Thomas Sykora, Gary Ward and Michelle Williams
Curator: Marko Stamenkovic, art-e-conomy / Belgrade, Serbia
June 21 25, 2007
Desant, 123 Ion Mihalache Bd., Bucharest, Romania
Opening: Tuesday, June 21, 19.00 / Followed by Public Debate, 20.00
Participants: Andreea Grecu (economist), Eugen Radescu (politologist), Razvan Ion (editor of Pavilion), Alex Balasescu (antropologist), Cristian Crisbasan (journalist), Catalin Avramescu (political analist).
Moderator: Marko Stamenkovic (curator).
After party: Frame Club, Bd. Magheru nr. 38b, 22.00
The concept of dis-economy of life is meant to suggest the tight connections between the various areas in which the economic, in the sense of organization of life, affects people: public space, private life, individual mental well-being. In all these domains, a form of dis-economy occurs at the present time. As a result, people float in uncertainty, at the same time economically connected to and yet, disconnected from one another. The proposed series of films present these domains, by means of visual description, narrative, encounters, and reflexivity
Cinema Suitcase is an international group of filmmakers pursuing projects of experimental social documentary. The group consists of: Mieke Bal, Zen Marie, Thomas Sykora, Gary Ward, and Michelle Williams. Coming from a diversity of fields in the visual arts, they seek to facilitate the self-narration of their subjects, always encountered on the basis of a great intimacy, rather than constructing their stories for them. This approach enhances the performative quality of filmmaking as a collective process. The travelling media exhibition brings together three separate yet complementary work-segments (video installation Nothing is Missing; Colony; Mille et un jours & Access Denied).
Supported by:
AFCN (Romanian National Cultural Fund)
Pavilion | contemporary art & culture magazine
Persona
The debate (from left to right: Andreea Grecu, Alex Balsescu, Razvan Ion, Eugen Radescu). Videostill from Realitatea TV.
Eugen Radescu and Alex Balsescu live debate on Realitatea TV.
Marko Stamenkovic (the curator of Dis-Economy- left) and Alex Balasescu (antropologist).
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PAVILION MEETING PLACE
18-20 May 2007
Networking, debates, lectures.
Friday 18 May 2007
20.00 Launch of PAVILION magazine no. 11 on the topic �What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next�
Desant, Bd. Ion Mihalache nr. 123
22.00 Party with a special DJ show.
Frame, Bd. Magheru nr. 38B.
Saturday 19 May 2007
09.00 � 11.30 Informal meeting of participants.
Art Cafe, Str. Gabroveni nr. 4.
17.00 Breakfast At Pavilion
�The Magazine As Temporary Structure�, a lecture by Felix Vogel
Desant. Bd. Ion Mihalache nr. 123.
18.30 Breakfast At Pavilion
�Political Esthetics�, a lecture by Cosmin Marian
Desant. Bd. Ion Mihalache nr. 123.
Sunday 20 May 2007
10.00 � 13.00 Informal meeting of partticipants.
Art Caf�, Str. Gabroveni nr. 4.
17.00 Breakfast At Pavilion
�Being Here. Mapping the Contemporary�
Public debate with Jan-Erik Lundstrom & Johan Sjostrom, the curators of Bucharest Biennale 3.
The opening of the debate will be made by a lecture-research proposal by Maria Lantz.
Desant. Bd. Ion Mihalache nr. 123 (intersection with Turda st.)
Participants: Johan Sjostrom, Maria Lantz, Felix Vogel, Adrian Notz, Alex Balasescu, Cosmin Marian, Razvan Ion, Eugen Radescu, Lara Pandurovic, Michael Cylinki, Michaela Konrad, Sebastian Moldovan, Simion Cernica, Adrain Matei, Mateo Petterlini, Marco Ambrosi, Bartosz Ozon and many more.
Supported by AFCN, Antibiotice, Artelier and Persona.
Visit in the studio of Dan and Lia Perjovschi (image: Dan Perjovschi and Johan Sjostrom).
“Informalities”, lecture by Maria Lantz.
“The Magazine as Temporary Structure”, lecture by Felix Vogel.
Informal meeting of the participants.
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11-25 May 2007, Bucharest, Desant, Bd. Ion Mihalache nr. 123.
Opening 11 May 2007, 19.00. The “Holy Damn It” debate moderated by Razvan Ion started at 19.30. Participants: Dan Perjovschi (artist/journalist), Vasile Ernu (writer/columnist), Eugen Radescu (politologist/curator), Alexandru Balasescu (antropologist), Cristian Crisbasan (writer/journalist), Adriana Zaharia (theatre director), Andreea Grecu (economist).
The art project HOLY DAMN IT has to be seen as an artistic intervention in the process of a political debate about social alternatives in the international protest and resistance movements against the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm near Rostock in 2007.
Ten international artists and artist collectives from four continents have created one poster each:
- bankleer (D)
- open circle (Indien)
- Mansour Ciss/
Laboratoire D�berlinisation (Senegal)
- Markus Dorfm�ller (D)
- Petra Gerschner (D)
- Marina Griznic (Slowenien)
- Ibrahim Mozain/Artists Without Walls
(Israel/Pal�stina)
- Oliver Ressler (A)
- Walter Seidl (A)
- Allan Sekula (USA)
More on: www.holy-damn-it.org
The 24 hours exhibition in the window of the location.
The debate with (from left to right): Razvan Ion, Alex. Balasescu, Dan Perjovschi, Andreea Grecu, Eugen Radescu, Vasile Ernu.
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Johan Sjostrom & Jan-Erik Lundstrom, the appointed curators of Bucharest Biennale 3 held a press conference in Bucharest. They revealed the concept of the BB3: “Being Here. Mapping the Contemporary.” More details at www.bucharestbiennale.org
From left to right: Andreea Manolache (managing director BB3), Razvan Ion (co-director BB3), Felix Vogel (assistent curator), Jan-Erik Lundstrom (curator), Joha Sjostrom (curator), Eugen Radescu (co-director).
Photo: Cristian Crisbasan.
Pavilion was present at “Cultor”, a panel discussion about internet & culture, in Bucharest, moderated by Razvan Tupa, a Romanian poet.
PAVILION is part of KIOSK (image from Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, Canada).
KIOSK is a traveling archive of independent publishing projects on contemporary art. Continually growing, the non-representational and informative collection currently comprises over 4000 publications of artists books, periodicals, video and audio labels. The archive presents a worldwide selection of contemporary art publications which are available to browse through, making it a significant resource for students, lecturers, arts practitioners and the public.
Organised and compiled by Christoph Keller, the founder and former director of Revolver Archiv fr aktuelle Kunst in Frankfurt.
The most recent of the previous fifteen stops of the traveling archive include ICA, London; the 9th Istanbul Biennial; KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin; and Witte de Witte, Rotterdam. From The Physics Room the KIOSK travels to the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, Canada.
100 Dutch Minutes (video art from The Netherlands), a project curated by Razvan Ion & Felix Vogel and shown at Academy of Art in Cluj, Timisoara, at Center for Contemporary Dance Bucuresti and French Cultural Center in Iasi. Supported by Mondriaan Foundation and Pavilion.
“Surveillance, Art and Power” a lecture by Razvan Ion at Political Science Faculty in Cluj. With the support of Pavilion. Special thanks to Cosmin Marian and Gabriel Badescu.
Lecture “The Magazine As Temporary structure” at O3one (curator of the gallery: Marko Stamencovic), Belgrade. A lecture by Razvan Ion & Eugen Radescu with contribution by Felix Vogel.
Rainer Ganahl’s post card just arrived.
Adrian Notz, from Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich
Two theorethicians & curators: Marina Grzinic & Felix Vogel
Launch party for PAVILION no. 9, reader of BB2. Deconstructed PAVILION on a panel.
THE BRUNCH
Tuesday, June 27, 12.00 a.m.
CAA, Bucharest, Str. General Budisteanu 19 (in the courtyard of Faculty of Art).
�The Brunch� at CAA (Center for Art Analyze/Contemporary Art Archive).
Debates moderated by Lia & Dan Perjovschi.
A democratic choice of the topic will be performed to conclude the last day of BB2.
WHAT IS �THE BRUNCH�
“The Brunch” is an ongoing project realized by CAA and PAVILION magazine after an idea by Lia Perjovschi.
�The Brunch� is a platform of debate and analysis of the Romanian and international art scene and the social-political context.
These events will explore on a theoretical level the role of art, discussing the possible social and political missions of artistic practice.
We would like to encourage communication, consultation - perhaps collaboration - alongside facilitating the reciprocation of knowledge and understanding between the artists and theoreticians involved.
ORGANIZERS
Lia Perjovschi’s CAA (Contemporary Art Archive/Centre for Art Analysis) is a project active under different names and in different shapes since 1988. CAA was a voice activated installation, a place for debate and criticism; it served as a point for local and international artists and curators to meet and exchange opinions and transformed itself and its mission according to the changes in the political and cultural context.
PAVILION is an art and culture magazine that name alludes to the relative temporary structure of the contemporary art.
The magazine is presenting wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary content in each issue through the varied formats of regular column, essays, interviews, and artist projects.
PAVILION does not only want to describe contemporary phenomenon but with its militant attitude it tries to directly intervene in cultural, political and social life.
Editors and founders: Razvan Ion & Eugen Radescu
This was a parallel event of BB2
Reading from Franz Fanon in Rainer Ganahl’s appartment in Bucharest.
Participants: Marina Grzinic, Eugen Radescu, Ciprian Homorodean, Felix Vogel, Alexandra Hagiu, Aaron Multon (FlashArt), Razvan Ion, Claudia Martins, Nora Dorogan.
Photo: Rainer Ganahl
More on the work of Rainer Ganahl in Bucharest:
http://www.ganahl.info/bucharest.html
http://www.ganahl.info/bucharest_fanon.html
Just a part of the team of BB2.
Stefan Constantinescu, Dacia 1300 My Generation & Passagen, video projections.
At ICF. (Still from the film “Dacia 1300 My Generation”).
N3krozoft Mord, Babel Project, multimedia performance at Test Point.
www.n3krozoft.com
Crossroads of illusions, solo created and performed by Adrian Stoian. At the National Centre of Dance Bucharest (CNDB).
Pavilion Lecture Series
Zsolt Petranyi, curator of BB2, lecture and debate about “Chaos: the Age of Confusion”, the theme of BB2.
Pavilion Lecture Series.
Rainer Ganahl lectured on “My Misery with Marx or How I Become an Artist”.
www.ganahl.info
Pavilion Lecture Series.
For the first time in Bucharest a lecture by Marina Grzinic (curator, artist, writer, philosopher), “Queer in Photography”.
No images of the art works in Bucharest Biennale 2.
Just because you can download the entire reader/catalogue of BB2 in PDF format at:
www.pavilionmagazine.org/PAVILION_no9.pdf
Artist Aya Tzukioka with her work.
Pavilion of PAVILION during BB2 in the Botanical Garden.
Opening of “I Am Luke Skywalker” by Ciprian Homorodean.
Image: Ciprian Homorodean (left) and Johan Sjostrom (swedish curator).
I think i m sufferign the romanian deseas of cioran
insomnia.. it s a8 am and I still can t sleep
ps: what is your mailing address. I want to send you
post cars
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First day of Bucharest Biennale.
Agent MC performed at the opening toghether with some skateboarders.
A limited edition of skateboard plates draw by Dan Perjovschi was launched.
The guests were invited to experience the urban travel by an ordinary line bus in Bucharest. The bus was crowded as a usual line bus is during the day in Bucharest.
Zsolt Petranyi (the curator) was the guide trough all the exhibit spaces of BB2.
After all this a great party was organized by Pilsner Urquell. Thank you Lorand Papp & Oana Ailenei.
Andrei Iancu & Razvan Ion planning the installment of the exhibition under the indications of the curator Eugen Radescu.
After the speech of the curator Eugen Radescu.
John Goto and Mark Durden (from Common Culture) at the opening.
John Goto and Eugen Radescu few minutes before the official opening.
